Black Friday

“And they crucified Him”—Mark 15:24.

Black Friday. It’s the time of year when stores traditionally mark the start of the Christmas shopping season. Before stores open, shoppers gather at the doors, waiting in expectation, hoping to reap the benefits of slashed sales offered by desperate retailers. Many stores will be packed with angry parents, desperate consumers, and overwhelmed employees, each trying to make sense of this one crazy day.

The original black Friday happened almost two thousand years ago, when an angry mob demanded the death of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t a time of deals or sales, it was a time of sin. They wanted one thing, His blood. Emotions ran high and the crowds were clamoring for His life, not realizing that His life afforded them the greatest gift of a lifetime, eternal life. Jesus laid down His life on our behalf. He offered His hands and feet to the nails and He hung on the cross on our behalf. The men and women in the crowd, many of them Jesus’ intimate followers, were trying to make sense of that crazy day. He was the promised Messiah, the one who was to liberate them from Rome. How could He be crucified? It was difficult to understand how a week beforehand, a man surrounded by cheering and adoring crowds, was being mocked and despised. What a difference a week makes!

The Christmas season is a time for us to pause and remember the lowly infant child in the manger. Expectation and hope were birthed in the stable. We look to the small child with hope, realizing that God has not left us in our sin. The manger is only half the story, however, one bookend of redemption. The other bookend is the cross, where Jesus went to make a payment for something that we could not, our sin. The incarnation was the expectation of redemption, and the cross, is the realization of what our sin required.

He offered Himself for us. By His death, He made available the greatest gift of all, forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him forevermore. Black Friday may mark the beginning of the Christmas season for retailers, but it points to an even greater gift, the gift of Jesus Christ. Through Him we have true hope and the joy that permeates the story of Christmas. And that joy dwells in our hearts because of His love. Beginning in the lowly manger, nailed to the criminal’s cross, dwelling in our hearts through faith is Jesus Christ. We celebrate the beginning of this Christmas season by remembering the greatest gift ever given to men, God Himself! Amen.